Cool winter containers

Blog Post by: Lynn Underwood

November 11, 2011 - 3:53 PM

Don’t wait too long to fill your pots with spruce tree-tops.

A couple years ago I waited until after Thanksgiving. I had dug out my frost-covered petunias and begonias and left the soil in my front door planters. They sat there for weeks. I finally made it to the garden center and bought a couple of bundles of freshly cut, fragrant evergreen branches

I took one branch and poked it into the dirt. It traveled about an an inch and then hit what felt like rock hard cement. The soil was frozen solid. So I found a big bucket, filled it with hot water and poured it into the pot. The spruce tops still weren’t strong enough to puncture the frozen dirt. After three more buckets of sloshing, heavy hot water, I could finally plunge the branches into the soil, which had turned into mud. Don’t let this happen to you.

I’m buying my spruce tops this weekend - well before Thanksgiving. And I plan to make my pots look better than the ones decorating the neighborhood PDQ.

Here’s some tips for creating cool winter containers:
• Mix in other evergreens such as golden-green cedar and blue-green juniper for color and texture.
• Insert red dogwood and curly willow branches for interest and height.
• For splashes of crimson red - trim stems of crabapple berries from a tree in your yard.
• Add a circular shape to the mix with dried Autumn Joy sedum.
• The final flourish: A string of tiny white lights.

What’s your recipe for a pretty pot that will brighten the landscape until the snow melts?